Marco Acerbis

Biography

Graduated in architecture at the Milan Polytechnic in 1998, he moved immediately to London, where he worked for Lord Norman Foster until 2004, when he inaugurated his agency in Italy. Always looking for new technologies and subjects, Marco Acerbis designs avant-garde projects, always focused on environmental sustainability. Among the most important designs, we’ll mention the Vertigo lamp, included in the permanent collection of the Vitra Design Museum, and two Italian buildings, certified Class A, Xellox Energy Lab and Polins.

Interview

What does your product tell about you?

The Wave faucet with its sinuous shapes on one side and square on the other fully testifies my approach to design: the constant search for the perfect balance between the function that by its very nature the object must possess and its aesthetic component that must knowing how to excite and surprise.

What does water represent for you?

Water is a challenge: in my work as an architect because in a project it is one of the most difficult elements to manage and in my free time because I have been practicing triathlon for several years and the swimming fraction, the first with which the competition opens, represents for me certainly the most demanding challenge, but also the most fascinating.

The ingredients that are never lacking in your way of designing?

A strong architectural connotation is never lacking in my projects: whether it is a tap, a lamp or a building, the sculptural aspect that defines the shapes in the space is fundamental and at the basis of all my choices. Added to this is the time to create elegant, timeless and easily usable objects.

Talking about design today, especially in Italy almost always means dealing with tradition. What about your creativity usually connects with tradition?

The idea that function does not necessarily have to sacrifice form and that even an object in common use can be beautiful and intriguing. As Castiglioni said: “A good project does not arise from the ambition to leave a mark, the designer's mark, but from the desire to establish even a small exchange with the unknown character who will use the object we designed”.

What was your first job?

I am an architect by training and during my university studies I started working as a project manager in Sir Norman Foster's studio in London.

What taps do you have in your bathroom?

Obviously Wave, what else?

From a design point of view, is there a strong and common corporate identity?

What I have always appreciated in IB is the continuous search for a design that is never predictable or banal, combined with the attention to detail typical of craftsmanship that is expertly re-proposed on an industrial scale.

Designing a line of bathroom products seems to be a very difficult request that requires a considerable technical approach… What helped you in this?

The relationship established with the company and the Bregoli family was certainly fundamental: immediately the mutual esteem and a continuous exchange of skills allowed, once the initial concept was approved, to quickly arrive at the definition of a fascinating and well-appreciated product. from the market.